presidential history

Strong and moderate, HW steered the country well in his brief tenure, Ned Lamont argues

(Newser) -
History does not tend to look kindly on one-term presidents—with the probable exception of James Polk, who managed to double the size of the country in four years. But Ned Lamont at Real Clear Politics wants to add "another one-termer to the pantheon: George Herbert Walker Bush."...
More »

President asked ally to keep tabs on a possible supporter

(Newser) -
A letter written by Abraham Lincoln is addressed only to "my dear Sir" and has a small section clipped out of it—but why? Researchers at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project investigated the letter in which the president asks an ally to keep an eye on a possible...
More »

Lyndon Johnson was full of himself, but it may have helped

(Newser) -
When you're running the country, being narcissistic may come in handy. Psychologists and experts on presidential personalities have put together a list of the presidents who had the most "grandiose narcissism"—which, the Houston Chronicle explains, is characterized by a showy and extroverted personality. That's in...
More »

White House slips its accomplishments into bios, conservatives guffaw

(Newser) -
History is written by the winners, and in this case by the winner of the 2008 presidential election: Take a gander at almost any presidential biography on WhiteHouse.gov from Calvin Coolidge on up, and you'll find a "Did You Know?" section that somehow, some way, links their...
More »

George W. Bush, meanwhile, finishes not quite last

(Newser) -
Two years in, Barack Obama looks like a pretty good president to the nation’s top presidential scholars. The 44th president came in 15th on the all-time list, two spots behind Bill Clinton and three ahead of Ronald Reagan, in a Siena College Research Institute Poll, the New York Daily ...
More »